Chennai, Jan 19 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Assembly's first session for the year 2026 is all set to commence on January 20 with Governor R N Ravi's customary address to the House on schedule.
With the Assembly election
due by April this year, the session is expected to be more tumultuous than during non-election years and the main opposition AIADMK is set to aggressively target the government.
The Assembly session is set to commence at 9.30 AM in the Fort St George Secretariat campus.
It remains to be seen whether Governor Ravi will deliver the address, having walked out of the House for the third consecutive year in 2025. Ravi had said the national anthem should have been played at the commencement of the session. In 2022, when Ravi made his maiden address to the House, the main opposition AIADMK had walked out of the House.
Ravi, who has locked horns with the DMK regime over several issues, assumed office as the 26th Governor of Tamil Nadu on September 18, 2021, and the DMK assumed power that year after being in opposition for a decade (2011-21).
According to officials, traditionally, in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the 'Tamil Thai Valthu', the invocation to Mother Tamil is sung at the commencement; following which the Governor would read out the address and the national anthem is played at the end.
In 2025, Ravi walked out of the House without reading the address and the Lok Bhavan had said: "When the national anthem was not sung or played at the commencement of the Governor's address, Governor respectfully reminded the House of its Constitutional duty and fervently appealed to the Chief Minister and Speaker for singing or playing the national anthem."
The Bhavan had said the request was not complied with. Not singing or playing the national anthem at the beginning of the Governor’s address was a blatant disrespect to the Constitution and the national anthem. "In deep anguish, Governor left the House," the Governor's office had said.
In 2024, Ravi declined to read out the customary inaugural address of the House, prepared by the DMK government, and also walked out of the Assembly. The Lok Bhavan, later said the address had numerous passages with misleading claims far from truth and and "reading them would have amounted to the Governor’s address becoming a constitutional travesty."
The Governor's office had also said Speaker M Appavu had launched a tirade against Ravi and called him a "follower of Nathuram Godse and more."
In 2023, Ravi walked out of the House abruptly while CM Stalin pointed to deviation from the government prepared text as the Governor avoided references like the Dravidian model of governance. The chief minister piloted a resolution to have on House record only the pre-approved, state prepared text and it was adopted. PTI VGN VGN ROH
